Deck the halls with boughs of holly. Falalalala, lalalala!
Living in the South brings great rewards to replace that wonder of wonders, snow, which we cannot even begin to hope for. Atlanta, Georgia, hasn't had many, if any, white Christmases but nature has blessed us with wonderful natural elements with which to decorate our homes.
Those who know me well know that I decorate with fresh greenery. No plastic garlands or fake flowers and berries for Sarah Anne Atkins (except for our fake tree that you've already heard about). Christmas decorations must include pine and cedar as far as I'm concerned. For the past couple of years I've decorated our Christmas tree with dried flowers. Some came from my back yard and others came from St. Stephen where I paint every Friday with Southern Colours artists. That is the day the altar guild disposes of the old flowers and brings in the new. They leave the old arrangements for us. It's the ultimate recycling of nature's bounty.
Living in the suburbs offers special challenges, though. I used to visit an empty lot behind our local supermarket where I could find fresh pine. It's now another strip mall so I take my black plastic garbage bag and head for the power lines that adjoin our neighborhood. There I can usually find little pine tree seedlings. I take only the side branches, hoping the trees will survive until next year.
Meanwhile, I have planted Burford hollies and nandina bushes that do not grow in the frozen North. A trip to the back yard gives me all of the beautiful red berries that one could ever hope for. They reward both the birds and me every year. I am also blessed to have access to my friend, Sally Arnold's, north Georgia mountain retreat where the climate and the terrain are as close to my West Virginia childhood as I can get these days. I lovingly cherish the white pine cones I find there and feature them every year in the decorations I put together for our family to enjoy. It's like a little piece of home.
My past few days have been greenery days. I have made wreaths and centerpieces galore after decorating our Christmas tree. Above you see some of the results of my labors. Now it's time to bake the cookies. A woman's work is never done – especially at Thanksgiving and Christmas time. To us falls the task of preserving memories of Christmases past and creating memories of Christmases present for future generations of our families. It's something we do with love every year.
Speaking of love, Carl made the cobweb ornaments for me when we were a young married couple and I had the bright idea that I would decorate our tree based on a story I read about birds, spiders, and other animals of the forest decorating a tree. They have been on our Christmas tree every year since then and, if you look closely, you'll see bird nests too.
